A VETERAN MP has called for an inquiry into the road death of a junior doctor as she drove home from a night shift.

Dr Denis MacShane, 63, said the government and NHS managers "should be asked questions" about the tragic case of Dr Lauren Connelly.

The Sunday Mail revealed last week that Lauren, 23, had just come off duty at Inverclyde Royal Hospital before she died.

Friends said she had voiced concerns over tiredness caused by her job hours.

Glasgow-born Dr MacShane has an uncle, aunt and cousin working as doctors.

The Labour MP for Rotherham said: "I just cannot work out how Lauren could have worked difficult hours and the NHS in Scotland can still be in compliance with EU regulations which are designed precisely to avoid this.

"It looks as if the consultants have won and so twisted the EU regulation that newly qualified doctors still work slave hours.

"The hospital management, NHS Scotland or the health minister should be asked questions."

Former Europe minister Dr MacShane, an MP since 1994, said he feared doctors were not paying proper attention to the EU Working Time Directive, which makes clear that doctors should not work more than 48 hours a week.

He said: "This directive has been around since 1994 and successive governments caved into the top doctors' lobby who treat newly qualified doctors as slaves, making them work infernal hours.

"It was not finally enacted until 2009. I had to deal with one or two terrible cases of Rotherham patients who died because exhausted junior doctors gave them the wrong prescription so I had hoped that once the EU directive was in place, this abuse would come to an end."

It is feared Lauren fell asleep at the wheel before her car veered off the M8 near Bishopton, Renfrewshire, and crashed down an embankment at 9.40am - just days before her 24th birthday.

Doctors say hospital rotas can mean juniors working 13-hour night shifts for up to 12 days in a row.

But health chiefs denied Lauren's death was linked to her rota patterns or the closure of rest facilities at the hospital.

Meanwhile, an academic expert said Lauren's case again raised the issue of overworked junior doctors.

Former Royal College of Physicians vice president Professor Roy Pounder said: "All employers have a responsibility to junior doctors and so far they have shied away from it.

"This accident means it is a fair question to ask whether health authorities are doing enough about working hours and rotas.

"The NHS is one of the biggest employers of night shift workers in the world but they have no guidance for staff on how to prepare, work and recover from night shifts.

"Evidence from around the world shows that night shifts are the most dangerous for having accidents.

"Your first shift is the safest and every consecutive shift after that increases your risk - seven shifts in a row is the worst thing you can do for accidents." Professor Pounder's survey of 1619 junior doctors in 2006 found one in six had a traffic accident when commuting to work.

A Scottish government spokesman, said: "The number of hours junior doctors work has reduced in recent years and the working time regulations also now apply to all junior doctors, nurses and other staff.

"The rotas require junior doctors to have a continuous daily break of 11 hours and a weekly break of 24 hours or 48 hours over two weeks. A police investigation is still ongoing into this case and it would therefore not be appropriate to comment."